What is the Conversation Café?
Hi everyone!
The Conversation Café is a small-group live-online course aimed at helping you build your English conversation skills.
I hope you enjoy it and, at the same time, get to meet and talk with a variety of people from different regions/countries. Also, because it’s live-online, you don’t need to worry about wearing a (covid-19) mask.
Don’t forget to bring your coffee!
Paul
How can this course help me?
1. Build speaking fluency
2. Build conversation skills
3. Build vocabulary and pronunciation
Apply here for first two Conversation Café lessons (free)
Who is this course for?
All learners and nationalities are welcome.
This is an English-only conversation course so it’s best for learners who already have some basic ability (eg. able to introduce themselves, talk about past experiences, future goals, and give basic opinions etc.). In other words, around upper-beginner (CEFR A2) level or over.
You are given the conversation topics (and a short ‘useful vocabulary’ list) before each lesson giving you a chance to prepare each week (see course schedule below for topics).
For new students, the first two lessons are free so you can use this time to check if you like the course.
Course timing & details
Course start: Sunday November 7, 2021
Lesson timing: Every Sunday 4-4:50pm Japan time (3am EST) (*No lesson on Sun Jan 2, 2022)
Teacher: Paul McAleese
Learner type/level: From upper-beginner (CEFR A2). Young adult/adult learners. All nationalities welcome.
Lesson length/timing: 50min/week x10 weeks
Lesson size: 6-20 students
Lesson format: Real-time (synchronous), online on Zoom*
Course fee: USD$5.00/lesson (including lesson materials & tax). The first two lessons of this course are free for new students.
*Learners need access to PC or device with a webcam & mic, and a stable internet/WIFI connection. Learners also need to have a Zoom account (it’s free)
Apply here for first two Conversation Café lessons (free)
What happens in the lessons?
The course is live-online (ie. in real-time, from your home using your PC/laptop webcam & mic) with a very relaxed and informal content (as I said, bring your own coffee!). Each weekly lesson has a different conversation topic (eg. Week 1- Travel; Week 2 – Famous people).
Each lesson starts with a short warm up, then the class is divided into smaller groups of 3-4 learners (break-out rooms). The learners in each group briefly introduce themselves and are then free to talk about the weekly talking points.
To keep the conversations active, every 8mins the learners in each group are changed randomly into new groups and asked to restart their conversations. For the final 10min of each lesson, the class comes back together for some friendly feedback/advice/questions from the teacher.
Each lesson also introduces a new conversation skill, for example, reacting to speaker, checking information, and changing topics.
Apply here for first two Conversation Café lessons (free)
Sample lesson report (Course 1, September 26, 2021)
Continued below
Course 2 schedule
| Date/time* | Topic | Talking points | |
| 1 | Sun Nov 7, 4-4:50pm | Travel | 1. Where is an interesting place you have travelled to? 2. Have you ever had any problems while travelling? 3. Where is a place you would like to travel to in the future? 4. Do you think some people spend too much money on travel? |
| 2 | Sun Nov 14, 4-4:50pm | Famous people | 1. Have you ever met a famous person? 2. Who is a famous person you would you like to meet? 3. Who is a famous person in history you like? 4. Do you think being famous always makes people happy? |
| 3 | Sun Nov 21, 4-4:50pm | Foods of the world | See course booklet |
| 4 | Sun Nov 28, 4-4:50pm | Weekends & days off | See course booklet |
| 5 | Sun Dec 5, 4-4:50pm | Festivals & special events | See course booklet |
| 6 | Sun Dec 12, 4-4:50pm | Shopping | See course booklet |
| 7 | Sun Dec 19, 4-4:50pm | School & study | See course booklet |
| 8 | Sun Dec 26, 4-4:50pm | New Year celebrations | See course booklet |
| 9 | Sun Jan 9, 4-4:50pm | Seasons & weather | See course booklet |
| 10 | Sun Jan 16, 4-4:50pm | Studying languages | See course booklet |
Paul’s introduction (50sec video)
Apply here for first two Conversation Café lessons (free)
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